Amy Lee brings life back to Evanescence

IT took five years between Evanescence albums for singer Amy Lee to decompress from her band's claustrophobic rise.

By Ross Purdie, National Entertainment Writer

AAPMarch 22, 20128:10am

IT took five years between Evanescence albums for singer Amy Lee to decompress from her band's claustrophobic rise.

After 2006's The Open Door, Lee moved to New York to get married with no guarantee of returning to the group she founded as a 14-year-old in Arkansas.

Evanescence sold 17 million copies of their debut 2003 album Fallen, the song Bring Me To Life reaching number one in Australia, but internal tensions gradually paralysed the gothic rock band.

Terminal cracks during the recording of The Open Door resulted in the departure of guitarist Ben Moody, keyboardist David Hodges, drummer Rocky Gray, rhythm guitarist John LeCompt and bassist Will Boyd.

Replacement musicians were drafted in for a pre-arranged world tour a year later, including drummer Will Hunt and bassist Troy McLawhorn, but the future of Evanescence remained uncertain.

Lee believed her band was destined to fall apart on several occasions and yet the state of limbo suited the singer's sense of exploring the unknown.

"It was important for me to have the freedom to go 'I don't know what's going to happen' and take the time off to wait for the inspiration to come," she says in Sydney.

"I never want to try to force something to happen because it's what the fans want, or what the label wants, or what's going to make me the most money.

"I think it's so much more important for me to feel like I'm doing something because it's what I really want otherwise I'm just going to get burnt out and want to quit."

Since releasing last year's self-titled album Evanescence, the band have embarked on an extensive world tour starting in Australia this week.

The new music is epic in scope with a more electronic edge, including synthesisers and Lee's first attempt at playing the electric harp.

Lee attributes the extra dynamic in the band to the technical prowess of McLawhorn and Hunt and a new feeling of harmony within the band.

"There's lots of experimentation but more than that the new record was about mastering the sound of Evanescence ... by bringing those original feelings and inspirations and applying them to us now," she says.

"It's a lot of things all at once so it's hard to describe, but everyone working together and finding that band thing is what drove this record on.